(bāo): placenta, womb, born of the same parents

(bāo) is a Chinese character meaning “placenta.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1333 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flesh. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. placenta
  2. womb
  3. born of the same parents

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼包 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounxì bāocell (biology)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shuāng bāo tāitwin
tóng bāoborn of the same parents
gàn xì bāostem cell
ái xì bāocancer cell
nǎo xì bāobrain cell
bái xì bāowhite blood cell
hóng xì bāoerythrocyte
xuè xì bāoblood cell
shén jīng xì bāonerve cell
dān xì bāo(of an organism) single-celled
xì bāo hénucleus (of cell)
lín bā xì bāolymphocyte
lì xì bāogranulocyte
tǐ xì bāosomatic cell
xì bāo mócell membrane
100
Total compounds
7
As first character
48
As last character
45
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 7 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 45 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.818178,602 co-occurrences
tāi
0.69751,295 co-occurrences
diāo
0.5552,724 co-occurrences
ái
0.54512,672 co-occurrences
0.53210,462 co-occurrences
liú
0.5317,212 co-occurrences
lín
0.5084,320 co-occurrences
mèi
0.49921,534 co-occurrences
0.49930,120 co-occurrences
xiōng
0.49420,751 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

luǎnmǔxìbāoHSK 7+

oocyte

noun
shāndì tóngbāoHSK 6+

Taiwanese indigenous peoples

noun
shénjīng xìbāoHSK 6+

nerve cell

noun
xìbāo fēnlièHSK 7+

cell division

noun
xìbāo sèsùHSK 6+

cytochrome

noun
xìbāo zhōuqīHSK 6+

cell cycle

noun
tūnshì xìbāoHSK 6+

phagocyte

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le bāo zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "胞" in the dictionary.

99 健康网Feb 2026

丈夫准备给诞下5胎老婆送黄金!五胎妈妈的产后康复与育儿...

zhàng fū zhǔn bèi gěi dàn xià 5 bāo tāi lǎo pó sòng huáng jīn ! wǔ bāo tāi mā mā de chǎn hòu kāng fù yǔ yù ér . . .

The husband is ready to give gold to his wife who gave birth to quintuplets! Postpartum rehabilitation and parenting of quintuplets mothers...

TechnewsFeb 2026

深海鱼视网膜发现新“混血”视觉细,颠覆 150 年生物学认知

shēn hǎi yú shì wǎng mó fā xiàn xīn hùn xiě shì jué xì bāo , diān fù 1 5 0 nián shēng wù xué rèn zhī

Deep-sea fish retinas discover new "mixed" visual cells that overturn 150-year-old biological cognition

StheadlineFeb 2026

...绑架案—中国商人遭撕票 传10跨海杀人同落网—有片

. . . bǎng jià àn — zhōng guó shāng rén zāo sī piào chuán 1 0 kuà hǎi shā rén tóng bāo luò wǎng — yǒu piàn

... Kidnapping case - Chinese businessman was torn up and 10 cross-sea murderers were arrested - there is a film

TvbsFeb 2026

谢京颖孕肚卸货倒数!怀双胎“四肢超细” 激瘦身材曝光

xiè jīng yǐng yùn dù xiè huò dǎo shǔ ! huái shuāng bāo tāi sì zhī chāo xì jī shòu shēn cái pù guāng

Xie Jingying's pregnant belly unloading countdown! Pregnant with twins, "super thin limbs" and extremely thin figure exposed

百度新闻Feb 2026

跨越八百里守护 湘雅医院助超早产三胎平安回家团圆

kuà yuè bā bǎi lǐ shǒu hù 湘 yǎ yī yuàn zhù chāo zǎo chǎn sān bāo tāi píng ān huí jiā tuán yuán

Spanning 800 miles to protect Xiangya Hospital to help the ultra-premature triplets return home safely and reunite

Tatoeba

我们不能分辨那对双胎。

Wǒmen bù néng fēnbiàn nà duì shuāngbāotāi.

We could not tell the twins one from the other.

Tatoeba

她生了双胎女儿。

Tā shēng le shuāngbāotāi nǚ'ér.

She gave birth to twin girls.

Tatoeba

他的妻子生下了一对双胎男孩。

Tā de qīzi shēngxià le yīduì shuāngbāotāi nánhái.

His wife gave birth to twin boys.

Tatoeba

他把我误认为我的双胎兄弟。

Tā bǎ wǒ wù rènwéi wǒ de shuāngbāotāi xiōngdì.

He mistook me for my twin brother.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced bāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 胞 (bāo) mean in Chinese?
胞 (bāo) primarily means "placenta." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1333 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 胞 and 炮?
胞 (bāo) and 炮 (pào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 火 (same 包 component).
How many strokes does 胞 have?
胞 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 胞?
The radical associated with 胞 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 胞?
胞 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 包 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼包 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 胞?
Common words with 胞 include: 双胞胎 (shuāng bāo tāi, "twin"); 细胞 (xì bāo, "cell (biology)"); 同胞 (tóng bāo, "born of the same parents"); 干细胞 (gàn xì bāo, "stem cell"); 癌细胞 (ái xì bāo, "cancer cell"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 胞 (bāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation bāo: 饱 (full), 包 (to cover), 煲 (to cook slowly over a low flame), 薄 (thin), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 胞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 胞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.